22 Attend Latest Agile/Scrum Boot Camp

Without ultra-effective project management and strong teamwork, developing software can be an expensive quagmire.  While software development success rates are improving according to most surveys, more than half fail.

Enter the “Agile” method.

22 I.T. professionals recently attended the latest Agile/Scrum software development boot camp in Louisville, organized and delivered by the Continuous Improvement Center and Ebit Information Systems.

Out with the old, in with the new

Most software development projects are managed the old way, using what’s known as the “Waterfall” model.  The project is usually thoroughly scoped and all user requirements documented before the first line of code is written.  Things happen sequentially, with progress through seven phases seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the phases of Conception, Initiation, Analysis, Design (validation), Construction, Testing and Maintenance.

The challenge with the Waterfall method, according to Agile practitioners, is there is a very long wait before any usable software is delivered, and by the time the project is at or near completion, the customer’s needs have often shifted so dramatically that coding changes create massive budget overruns or worse, scrapping of the project.

The Agile approach is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development.  With Agile, customer needs and software solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.  Usable software is delivered in two to four week iterations. Each iteration moves the project closer to completion, but users can begin leveraging what has been done to date.

For more on Agile methods, visit http://www.agilealliance.org/